


Mechanical Workings

by LastHope



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist, Kingdom Hearts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-11
Updated: 2014-07-11
Packaged: 2018-02-08 08:49:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1934511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LastHope/pseuds/LastHope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mechanic doing house calls wasn’t considered abnormal.  Unless you were a mechanic fixing a ship from another world, of course.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mechanical Workings

**Author's Note:**

> This is a gift to a friend on Tumblr! She asked for something pertaining to either Kingdom Hearts or Fullmetal Alchemist, and this was the result. I haven't decided if there will be a continuation or not, so the ending is pretty open-ended to accommodate for that.

It wasn’t very often that Sora crash landed on a new world but, then again, it wasn’t very often that they crashed at all.  The last time that Sora could remember them crashing at all, not counting when Monstro swallowed them, was during his very first journey, with Donald and Goofy, and the very first time Sora tried to drive the Gummi Ship, crashing them onto Tarzan’s world.  However, there was one difference between that time and now.  Well, aside from Donald and Goofy being with him.  And that was that the Gummi Ship was _wrecked_.  And with no Chip and Dale aboard, and his very limited knowledge of how the Gummi Ship even worked, there was no hope of Sora getting the ship off of the ground, let alone out of the atmosphere.

He could always radio for help from someone back at Radiant Garden.  Surely Cid would send him someone to either come pick him up or who was able to patch the ship up enough to get him back to the Garden.  Sora reached for the radio, but was greeted with a puff of smoke from the speaker when he pressed the button to open the line.

“Great, just great.” He muttered to himself, kicking out at the machinery. “Is there anything on this thing that wasn’t destroyed in the crash?” Sora’s foot landed solidly on the edge of dash, and it sputtered, lights on the control panel flashing.  For a moment, Sora had hope that that kick had given the ship enough juice for him to radio back to Radiant Garden, but he was greeted by the robotic voice of the ship saying,

“Cloaking device enabled.”

Well, that was… pretty good, actually, as Sora thought about it.  Come to think of it, he was supposed to keep world order, and who knew what the residents of this world would think of, seeing a crashed ship like this.  Or if they even had technology close to it on their world.

Oh God, what if they were a different species _entirely_?  Sora would have no way of being able to not break world order if that was the case, without Donald around.  However, there was no way to know without leaving the ship, and he could look for a mechanic or someone to at least fix the communication systems in the Gummi Ship.  It wasn’t a problem for only one person to know he was from off-world, right?

Sora was quick to exit the hatch of the Gummi Ship, and looking at where the ship was located; indeed the cloaking device was working, which was a blessing in itself.  Kicking up a mound of dirt to mark the edge of the ramp and where the ship crashed, Sora picked a direction and started walking.

It seemed like he picked the right direction, as it was not long before Sora reached both a road, and a fork in it.  Like a typical situation where the protagonist of a movie found themselves at a decision making point, there was no indicator of which direction Sora should go.  The signpost that was supposed to be at the fork was long gone, so Sora, like in every action movie he had ever seen (which hadn’t been so many as of late), closed his eyes and did eenie-meenie-miny-mo and let fate decide the path he was going to take.

His random Russian roulette choice led Sora to take the beaten path to the left, which was probably for the better, as if it was more worn down that meant people travelled this path a lot, right?

It wasn’t long after Sora started walking down the path that the sound of a cart approaching from behind greeted his ears.  He stopped, stepping off of the dirt path in order to let the cart pass.  Good news though was that he was more than likely near a town.  The only question was whether Sora was walking away from the town, or towards it.

Horses passed in front of him, slowing to a stop as the driver of the cart stopped next to the wayward hero.

“Lost?” The driver asked, looking Sora over.  It didn’t show on the man’s face, but Sora was pretty certain that most of the driver’s attentions were being focused on his outfit.  His clothes had a tendency to do that, for some reason.

“I’m trying to find a town,” Sora responded, pondering how he could explain the crash without breaking the rules. “Or a mechanic!” Because a mechanic might be easier to find than a town.

“Ah, broke down are we?” The man laughed, probably at Sora’s expense, but Sora didn’t really mind.  “Cars don’t really do well out this far, I’m afraid. Too much dirt on the roads, unlike in East City.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Sora agreed, scratching the back of his head, hoping the driver wouldn’t realize he was lying, or that he wouldn’t give himself away by accident.  “Do you know of a mechanic nearby?  I’m not too familiar with the area.”

“We don’t use cars out in Risembool,” The man confessed. “We have automail mechanics, but I’m not sure how much help they’ll be.  If anyone can at least take a shot though, it would be the Rockbell’s.” From the phrasing, Sora would bet all the munny he had on him that Rockbell was the name of the mechanics.  Though, what automail was, Sora had no idea.  But if it had something to do with mechanics, it probably was not some sort of automatic mail.

“I’m headed into town myself,” The driver jerked his head toward the back of the cart his horses were pulling. “Hop in and I’ll give you a ride.”

“Thanks!” Sora gave the man a big grin that he was known for, and hauled himself over the side and into the back of the cart.

The trip didn’t take too long, and Sora made sure to pay attention to any passing land marks that would help him find his way back to where the Gummi ship was located.

He still hadn’t figured out how he was going to explain the situation to the mechanic, but Sora was better with coming up with plans on the spot than beforehand, so he was pretty certain that everything would turn out okay.

The driver (whose name turned out to be Sam, and he had three kids as Sora found out on the trip over) dropped him off at the bottom of a hill, telling him that the Rockbell’s shop (which also apparently doubled as their home) was at the top.  Sora was assured that someone should be there, and all he had to do was knock.  He was also told that there was a dog, but Den (the dog) shouldn’t bother him too much.

Sora made his way up the hill, and true to Sam’s word, there was a house sitting atop of it, a sign in the front reading “Rockbell Mechanics”, and a dog lying in the yard.  The dog took notice of him, letting out a “woof” as Sora came closer, standing up and trotting up to inspect Sora himself.  Slightly shocked, Sora noticed that the dog had a metal leg.  He recovered quickly, and, remembering how it was mentioned that the Rockbell’s were automail mechanics, wondered if automail was this world’s name for prosthetics.

Not seeing any reason to delay, Sora clambered onto the front step of the house, and rapped politely on the door.

* * *

 

The train out of East City Station was no busier than usual, but Ed was on edge more so than usual.  A passerby might say that it was probably from the sparking coming from the teenager’s right arm; an automail malfunction, no doubt, some would say without knowing if the boy truly had a need for a right arm prosthetic or not.  Others who knew Ed better might even say that the malfunction was undoubtedly from some sort of fight the easily angered alchemist got himself into.  Or, from others who worked with Ed might say that his on-edge behavior came from either a meeting with his supervising officer, Colonel Mustang, or dread from having to meet with his automail mechanic out in his hometown of Risembool for repairs.

Regardless if they knew it or not, all these assumptions would have some semblance of accuracy, unfortunately for Edward.

Prior to his and Al’s arrival to the train station bound to their hometown, Edward _had_ been in a meeting with Colonel Mustang.  It had been another debriefing that went along the lines of accusing Mustang of giving him and Al a false lead on the Philosopher’s Stone, Mustang yelling at him for causing so much property damage, Al trying to mediate, and then being rudely dismissed by Mustang with the excuse of having to paperwork that the bastard never did anyway.

Not only that, but Mustang had noticed the twitching of Ed’s arm that came from some sort of electrical shortage Ed had managed to cause during their last mission, and he had been told to go get it fixed because Mustang really didn’t want to file the paperwork that would come as a result of his death from such a _small_ problem (and the bastard purposely used the word small to set Ed off, he just knew it).

 Ed, despite his brother’s insisting of his doing so, hadn’t bothered to phone ahead for an appointment.  Mainly because he didn’t want to deal with the shouting that would come with the admittance of Ed’s breaking of his automail (again).  Winry had a habit of tearing him a new one every time he (accidentally) broke or damaged his prosthetics.

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen Granny Pinako and Winry, hasn’t it brother?” Al’s slightly tinny voice echoed from the train seat across from Ed.  A strange appearance from any passerby, the younger brother sitting across from Ed was decked out in full body armor, standing somewhere near seven (or so) feet tall.  Ever the reminder of Ed’s sins, and the brother’s need to find the Philosopher’s stone.

“Yeah, it has, hasn’t it?” Ed agreed, tearing his gaze from the window to look at the brother sitting across from him.  “Don’t think Winry will be too pleased with the circumstance, though.”

“Brother!” Al’s voice was sharp and scolding, eyes glowing with disapproval.  “You told me you called them to tell them we were coming!” Ed slouched in his seat and looked away from his younger brother, as if it would make him not as much of a target for his brother’s ire.

“Yeah, well it’s too late now,” Ed muttered sourly, training his eyes on the scenery that was starting to fly by the windows.  Al gave a sigh that sounded disapproving, which only encouraged Ed to slouch lower in his seat.

It was a long ride home to Risembool, and the tense silence Ed and Al spent the trip in didn’t really help matters.  Every time Ed would glance over at his younger brother, Al would be looking at him with these disappointed eyes (how he managed to convey so much emotion while he was just a soul attached to armor, Ed was unsure, but he was at least grateful that his brother was capable of showing emotion) that would just cause Ed to look away once more.

This continued all the way up until they reached the station right on the outskirts of Risembool.

“I guess it’s time to get this over with,” Ed grumbled, before letting out a muted yelp when he moved his arm wrong and it sent an electrical shock through his nervous system.  The brothers walked through town, making their way toward Granny Pinako’s house where, undoubtedly, Ed was about to get beat up for his mistreatment of his automail.

Surprisingly, however, as Ed and Al walked on to the Rockbell property, there were no wrenches sailing through the air to pummel Ed to a pulp.  While this was a welcomed change, there was something about the silence of the property that was unnerving.  Den wasn’t basking in the yard like he normally did on warm days like this was.  With an air of caution, the Elric brothers did their best not to worry as they approached the front door of what was their childhood home.

Ed rapped once, twice, three times on the front door before opening it up and calling out,

“Granny Pinako? We’re home.”

The house was empty, though.

The entire first floor where the majority of the automail appointments took place was empty, as was the basement.  Upstairs was vacant as well, and even Winry’s room and where she did most of her tinkering was devoid of signs of living.  Her toolbox was gone as well, and there was something about the situation that was putting Ed on edge.

“They probably just went into town, and we just missed them brother!” Al was saying as he and Ed went back downstairs, Ed having voiced his unease to his sibling. “It’s not like Granny Pinako and Winry stay inside all day.  This is why you should have called first!” Ed scoffed.

“There’s just something not right,” He repeated, crossing across the living room, only pausing when he again moved his arm the wrong way and sent another shock across his nervous system.

“The only thing not right here is why you boys never call before you come visit us,” A voice cropped up off to the side, causing both boys to jump.  There was a harsh bark of laughter, and the sight of a familiar face.

“Granny Pinako!” Pinako let out a puff of smoke from her pipe.

“Alphonse, Edward.” She looked from one to the other between the boys, as if she were assessing them. Pinako fixated most of her attentions on Ed, and something told him that she did not miss the little shock he experienced just a few short moments earlier. “I take it you are here about your automail again?” Ed nodded, left hand coming up and rubbing at the junction where flesh met metal.

“Yeah, where’s Winry?” Ed didn’t miss a beat, and Pinako let out another barking laugh, smoke puffing out with the sound.

“You think you’re her only client?” Pinako poked, but even as Ed grew red and tried to say something she continued.  “She’s on a house call.  Been helping the same boy try to fix something of his for three days now. She should be home soon.”

Ed didn’t hear the last of what Pinako said, because his brain connected the words of “house call” and “boy” and took it places that fueled his ire.

Outside, there was the sound of laughter, and the clinking that was a toolbox.  A bark signaled that Den was outside somewhere, and Ed wasted no time in rushing to the window to try and get a look at this “boy” that Winry had been making “house calls” to.

Of course, the first thing that Ed noticed was the other boy’s height.  He was just as tall as Winry, if not a little taller if you included the height of his hair. (Which Ed didn’t.  Hair was only included when measuring his own height, thank you very much.)  Ed took solace in the fact that the kid’s feet were enormous, though it didn’t really help much.

“Thanks for walking me back,” He heard Winry say.

“It’s not a problem,” The boy she was with answered, and Ed could just feel his blood start to boil inexplicably.  “I mean, it’s the least I can do, since you’re helping me out so much.”

“Do you want to stay for dinner?” Winry asked, and Ed found himself shaking his head, trying to will the boy into saying no.  Winry was his mechanic, god dammit.

“Are you sure your grandma won’t mind?” The boy wasn’t saying no, and Ed didn’t like that.  His statement sounded more like an assent and Ed didn’t want an assent, he wanted a dissent.

“Of course not!” Winry, no!  But she was turning the doorknob to enter the house and it was too late to turn back now.  “We don’t have  much company with Al and Ed-” Winry stopped abruptly as she entered the house, spotting the devil’s she had just spoken of.

And Ed was still standing by the open window where he had been eavesdropping on them.

“Edward.” Winry’s tone was dark, and her toolbox was clutched in a white knuckled grip.  Ed braced himself.

The boy she was with popped his head inside the house, looking between the brothers.

“You must be Edward and Alphonse!” He addressed them. “Winry’s told me a lot about you.”

* * *

 

The mechanic at the Rockbell’s wasn’t anything like Sora had imagined.  Not that he had imagined anything about them prior to his arrival, of course, but still.  He hadn’t expected the mechanic to be so… well, so pretty.  If she hadn’t introduced herself as one of the mechanics, Sora wouldn’t have even made the connection that she was the mechanic he was looking for.

“What do you need help with?” She asked.  “Haven’t seen you in town before. New?”

“You could say that,” Sora gave a bit of a nervous laugh.  “I, uh, broke down just a ways outside of town and was wondering if you could come out and see if you could do anything about it.”

“Car?” Sora nodded and felt bad for lying but he really was trying his hardest not to break any rules even though technically he was still breaking them but the difference was at least he was _trying_.  “Give me a minute.”

She turned back in the house, grabbing something, before Sora heard her voice echo from the open door and windows,

“Granny, I’m going out! House call!” She popped back out the door, shutting it behind her, a strap dangling over her shoulder where there wasn’t before.  A toolbox, and from the way she started walking, Sora could tell that she was used to the weight of it. 

“Do you want me to carry that for?” Sora offered, because even though he figured that she could handle it herself, Kairi would hit him for not offering.

“No, it’s fine,” She shook her, like Sora thought.  “I’m used to it. Now, are we going?” Right.

“It’s this way,” Sora led the way, and the walk back to where the Gummi Ship was located was spent with idle chatter that was mostly one-sided, with vague responses on Sora’s part.  He learned that the mechanic’s name was Winry Rockbell (explaining the name of the mechanic shop at least), and she had two childhood friends named Edward and Alphonse Elric.  Apparently Edward also was one of her patients as well but Winry didn’t really go into why he needed automail even though he was her age and Sora didn’t really want to press her on the issue.  Instead he vaguely described where he was from, and his own friends for Winry.

All too quickly however they were approaching where the Gummi Ship was located, and Sora was going to have to explain himself.

“So, where is your car?” Winry asked as they finally reached the clearing where the Gummi Ship was, thankfully still working under the cloaking device.  Small victories. Sora had to appreciate them.

“Um, well, it’s not exactly a car that I need you to fix.” Sora admitted, before hastily adding on,  “I mean, there is something you need to fix, but I couldn’t exactly tell you back at your place because you probably wouldn’t have believed me and I’m also breaking a lot of rules just by asking for your help but I really do need your help so if you would still help that would-”

Winry had a look on her face that was a mix between nervousness and a frazzled state, with worry thrown on top like icing to a cake.

“Wait, wait, wait!” She interrupted Sora’s rambling.  “What are you talking about?  What is it that you actually need me to fix?  And what are you talking about, rule breaking?” She paused, fixing Sora with an unidentifiable stare.  “You aren’t military, are you?”

“Not quite.”

Standing on the invisible ramp to the Gummi Ship, and placing a hand on the paneled side to open the hatch, Sora grinned sheepishly.

“Would you believe me if I said I was from another world?”

* * *

 

Ed was determined to hate the boy that Winry was helping.  Call it petty of him, but he didn’t really care.  There was something _off_ about him that bothered Ed, and he didn’t like it.  Something that didn’t seem natural.

It didn’t help that before leaving East City he had heard some of the MP talking about something crashing down near Risembool.  There was gossip that it was some sort of UFO, and while Ed was not one to believe idle gossip, let alone such blatantly unscientific gossip, Ed would believe anything if it let him hate the kid.

But the problem was that there was almost nothing to hate about the boy.  He was perfectly polite, contributing to the conversation being held at the table, and, worse, completely ignoring the glares Ed was shooting at him from across the table. (Winry had noticed however, and it had earned him a kick in the shin and a hiss of “Be polite!”.)

Then Al asked,

“Where do you live Sora?” Because Sora was his name, even though Ed had already decided that he wasn’t going to bother remembering it.  Why remember a name of someone he already decided he would hate?

But that wasn’t the point.  The point was that when his little brother asked that glorious question, he had noticed his foe freeze up for just the tiniest second.

“Uh, down south,” Sora answered, recovering.  “Near the border, past South City.  You probably have never heard of the town, we’re pretty small.”

“Might surprise you,” Ed bit from across the table, tone sharp.  “Al and I are pretty well traveled.  There’s not many places in Amestris we haven’t been.”

“Geez Ed, what’s with the third degree?” Winry cut in from her seat.  “Cut Sora a break, what did he ever do to you?” Ed bristled.

“What, asking a question is a crime now?”

“It is when you are acting like you’re interrogating him!”

“Sorry, I didn’t know wanting to know a guy’s hometown was an interrogation!”

Al and Sora watched the back and forth on the sideline, shouting going on as they were forgotten.

“Sorry,” Al’s voice echoed from the suit of armor.  “Brother isn’t normally like this.”

“It’s alright,” Sora laughed, pushing himself up from the table.  “I should get going anyways.  It was nice meeting you, though.”  Al nodded, and Sora quietly made his way out of the house.

Ed and Winry, wrapped up in their arguing, didn’t even notice him leave.  Their arguing did end shortly after, with Winry’s aggravated declaration of,

“You’re impossible!” And her storming off into the upstairs of the house.

Ed clenched his hands into fists and ignored the sparking of his automail, gritting his teeth.  Al looked at him from his seat, staring impassively at his elder brother.

“You should go apologize to her, brother.”  Wasn’t it supposed to be the older brother giving advice to the younger one, not the other way around?  Either way it didn’t matter, because when it came to Winry, there was probably not enough advice in the world to help Ed.  Still, Ed had to concede, Al had a point.  Ed should apologize to her, if only to be able to have her fix his arm.

“You’re right,” Ed sighed, and followed his irate childhood friend, a bit slower than the stalking pace at which she had left.

Standing outside her closed door, Ed knocked on the door, calling out,

“Winry, are you in there?”

She didn’t answer, but instead of knocking again, Ed just continued talking.

“Look, I’m sorry about what I said downstairs.  I was an asshole and I shouldn’t have talked about your friend like that.” He hesitated, before adding, “I’m just… worried, because of something I heard in East City.  It’s stupid, but I heard some of the MPs talking about a UFO crashing down near here and I’m being dumb and worrying about you, okay?”

And Ed had never been happier to not be leaning against Winry’s door with how quickly she yanked it open.  Ed would have sworn that she was trying to rip it off its hinges with how harshly she treated it.

“What did you just say?”

* * *

 

To be completely honest, being asked to help someone from another world repair their spaceship wasn’t something Winry ever expected to happen.  In fact, if someone had told her that one day she would be doing just that, Winry would have laughed in their face and told them that they were nuts.  Other worlds?  Aliens?  God, even Ed would have had a field day if someone suggested it to him.  But, here Winry was, fixing the… _spaceship_ of someone who was from a different world.

“And how did all this happen, again?” She had asked Sora probably two or three times already, but Winry was still having a hard time comprehending it all.

“I wasn’t paying attention and got pulled into your world’s gravity, I think?” Sora winced, and Winry had to remind herself once more that Sora had outright told her that he knew absolutely nothing about how any of this machinery worked.  He knew how to fly it, but other than that it might as well have been Xingese to him.  “Came into fast, miracle how I was even able to survive.  It’s a wonder how the cloaking device even still works, not that I’m complaining.”  He continued mumbling to himself, while Winry busied herself trying to figure out where to start.

There was so much of the machinery that she wanted to take apart and figure out how they were built, what they did, and so much other things that her inner mechanic screamed at her to do, but Winry kept reminding herself, alien machinery or no, she had a job to do.  And currently, that job she was supposed to be doing was fixing the communication systems on the ship.

Sora had already profusely apologized to Winry for the situation, and told that if she could just get the communications working, he could (hopefully) radio for help from friends and get picked up, or have a mechanic dropped off to fix the ship.  The boy had been quick to tack on that it wasn’t because he doubted Winry’s ability as a mechanic, regardless that he had never seen how she worked, but he just figured that it was rude of him asking her to fix something that she didn’t even know how it worked and he didn’t want to put her too much out of her way.

He was really nice, and Winry couldn’t really find it in her to be mad at him.  It definitely helped that Sora had on his side a bunch of nice machinery, albeit however beat up it was.  This sort of thing was right up Winry’s alley.  Sure, it was no automail, but it was good to broaden one’s horizons.

Winry’s first step was figuring out how to get to the inner workings of the communication system of the ship.  When she was finally in, from there it was a simple matter of diagnostics, and figuring out what exactly was keeping it from working.

Finally pulling herself out of the system, Winry looked at Sora, giving him the breakdown of the system’s problems.

“Some of the wires have been pulled out, so those are just a simple matter of figuring out what ports they go to and plugging them back in.  Others need to be replaced completely, and that’ll be a bit more difficult, seeing as I have no idea what they are made of, voltage they are, and a whole bunch of other things you probably won’t understand anyway.” Winry sighed.  “It’ll take a couple of days, but I can probably manage.  You should be able to use the radio by Friday, maybe Saturday.  Sunday at the latest.”

“Thank you so much Winry,” Sora beamed at her, and Winry blushed, shaking her head.

“Don’t thank me yet,” She insisted.  “I haven’t done anything yet.  Save that for once everything is finished.”

* * *

 

Winry was definitely acting weird because of Sora, Ed determined.  His first hint had been at dinner earlier when she was quick to jump to his defense when Ed had asked for a specific town name.  (Seriously, since when was asking a town name offensive?)  Ed’s second, and more important, hint was Winry’s reaction when he had admitted that Ed thought there was the possibility of some sort of UFO somewhere in the vicinity of Risembool.  (As if aliens really existed though.  Ed would sooner admit he was… short, than admit that aliens were real.)

It had taken Ed physically holding Winry back to stop her from running after Sora after he told her of the military gossip he had heard.  And she still wouldn’t tell him anything!  Ed had asked her why she had reacted like that and Winry refused to answer him.  He tried forcing the topic, but Winry clammed up, going as far as to snapping at him.  Scratch that, going as far as taking his arm from him.  Not that Ed hadn’t been expecting it, seeing as Winry needed to fix his arm, and he was glad to have the damn thing stop shocking him every ten minutes, but it was the principle of things.

“I can’t believe you busted up my automail _again_ , Edward!” Winry was berating him, having forgone the prior topic in favor of yelling at Ed for his lack of ability to take proper care of his prosthetics.  “Honestly, how many times do we have to go through this?”

Winry was hunched over his arm, detached from its port, lying on her workbench.  It was always a bit odd for Ed to get used to the missing weight on his right side, and used to the exceeded vulnerability he had, as without his arm he couldn’t use his alchemy, but he was also quick to get used to the sensation.  After all, most of the time when he was down a limb, he was at Granny’s with Winry, and he had no worry of any spontaneous attacks from an unknown enemy.

Most of the time.

But now he was down a limb, and he still was worrying.  Ed couldn’t exactly place a finger on it, and the most he could get himself to settle on was he wanted Winry to be done with whatever “house call” work she was doing for Sora and wash her hands clean of him.  He could tell that the other boy was doing… _something_ to his mechanic, and Ed didn’t like the thought.  Not one bit.

“I’ll have to pull an all-nighter,” Winry finally grumbled, looking up from the arm, “But hopefully I should have your arm done by morning, early afternoon at the latest.”  She stretched, leaning back in her chair with one arm stretched above her head.

Bringing her arm down Winry continued, “It’s just a matter of rewiring the parts you _stupidly_ managed to disconnect.” 

The statement started out venomous, but died off to the point that Ed was just hypothesizing what Winry’s end goal was.  Somewhere around halfway through it, Winry got this look in her eye like Ed’s stupidity had just managed to solve her problems as she stared at his dead arm.  Almost immediately, she was into a new rant, picking up equipment and wires and other tools and- _most importantly_ -Ed’s arm.

“I can’t believe I was so stupid,” Winry was muttering feverishly as she went, “All this time I had all the answers _right in front of me_ and I never even thought to think about.  It was so simple, God I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner.”  She slung Ed’s arm and her toolbox over her shoulder, and Winry was darting down the stairs before Ed could even take a breath to ask what the hell she was raving about.

Still, Ed wasn’t about to let Winry get away from him, especially when he was positive that that Sora had something to do with this.  So he did the logical thing- he followed Winry.

He sprinted down the stairs after the taller girl, shouting to his brother to grab his jacket, fighting to get his boots on with one hand for only a moment before deeming the articles unnecessary and racing after his childhood friend barefoot, Al following behind with his brother’s coat flapping with him like a red flag.

* * *

 

Sora hadn’t had much experience with someone banging his door down at one in the morning in a long time.  Back on the Islands he and Riku (and sometimes Kairi, depending if school was in session or not) would sneak over to each other’s houses all the time, no matter the time of night, to talk, hang out, spend the night, anything.  It had become so commonplace that it got to the point where their parents didn’t even have to call each other to figure out where they were.  They just knew.

After the Islands were overrun by Heartless and Sora was thrown pretty much on his own (until he found Goofy and Donald, of course) to find Riku and Kairi, he didn’t have the experience of friends sneaking over or sneaking over to friends because, well, there were no friends to do such things with.  The closest thing he had gotten to the experience in the two (three?) years since the Islands were destroyed was the night after the Mark of Mastery Exam where Riku had snuck into his room in Yen Sid’s tower at three a.m., crawling into bed with Sora, and laying back to back with him like they were ten years old again. (He had been gone when Sora woke up and neither of them mentioned it and Sora is still uncertain whether it was a dream or not.)

Either way, all the times when Sora has gotten an awakening at an early time in the morning, it had been either Riku or Kairi banging his window or door down, and neither one of them were present.  It had taken Sora a minute to remind himself of that fact, because he was still stranded on the land he hadn’t given a name yet, and it was just him.  There shouldn’t be anyone knocking his door down.  He was sleeping on the Gummi Ship in the cabins for lack of better housing for him to stay at, and there wasn’t anyone who knew of the Gummi Ship’s location to be banging his door down, mostly because no one knew the ship’s location.

Or could see it, for that matter.  The cloaking mechanism was still working last Sora checked and- _oh Kingdom Hearts what if the cloaking mechanism wasn’t working anymore?_

But Sora’s memory interjected, telling him that wasn’t the case because it was one in the morning (at least he was pretty sure it was), _and_ because someone on the world knew where the Gummi Ship was located.  Winry.  The mechanic.  She knew the location because Sora had led her here the past three days as they tried to fix the communication systems on the ship and had met dead end after dead end trying to fix the wiring on the ship.

It had to be Winry, Sora told himself as he made his way to the hatch in order to see what she wanted.  What couldn’t possibly wait until morning?  Sora had assured Winry several times that she didn’t have to rush in getting the his communication systems fixed; sure his friends were probably worrying and Sora did not like doing that to his friends, but Sora also understood that Winry had other obligations along with not knowing how any of the Gummi Ship’s mechanics worked.

“Took you long enough!” Winry was out of breath, looking as if she just ran from Risembool straight to the Gummi Ship without stopping.  On her shoulder was her tool box and… was that a mechanical arm?

“What the hell?!” A voice from behind her squawked, and looking past Winry’s shoulder Sora could make out the head of Ed.  He was wearing the same bright red coat that he had when Sora first met him, and behind him stood his little brother Alphonse.  There was something off about Ed though, but Sora couldn’t place it.  “Where did that door come from? Where did _you_ come from?!”

“Move!” Winry was a tad more business than Ed was, and she bullied her way past Sora easily.

“Couldn’t this have waited until morning?” Sora asked, question directed at Winry as he stepped aside to let Ed and Al on board the Gummi Ship.  The brothers were muttering amongst themselves, and while Sora tried to stay tuned on what they were discussing, Sora also kept part (and most) of his focus on the girl at his communication systems.

“Wait!” Ed spluttered, as if he had finally connected the dots on something.  “You mean to tell me these house calls you have been making have been to fix this, this,” He waved his arms comically as if he could convey the word he was looking for through arm movements, “UFO?!”

“Well,” Sora was a bit more amused by the situation than he probably should have been, especially considering that it was two more people who knew his secret that he was from off-world and he had really been trying his best not to break the rules any more than he had to.  “Technically it’s a Gummi Ship, but a UFO is a good description too.”  Ed ignored Sora, acting as if he never heard the boy, and continuing to talk at Winry.

“You know how stupid doing this is?” He was yelling, and Sora was starting to think that Ed was one of those people who could only really communicate by shouting at people.  Not that there was anything wrong with that of course.  “What if you got caught by someone else helping _him_?” Ed flailed his arms once more in Sora’s direction, and Sora was pretty sure that Ed wanted to use a different word to describe him.

“Not only that, but he could be a spy, from Creta or Aerugo, and didn’t you even stop and _think_ about that,” Ed was turning red in the face, and Sora was currently amazed at how he hadn’t even stopped to take a breath yet. But… looking over at Winry showed a tension in the mechanic’s features, and Sora was pretty sure that that was red creeping up the girl’s ears.  Sora took a step back and to the side just as a pair of pliers came flying, slamming Ed in the middle of the forehead.

“Will you _shut up_!” Winry snarled, rage on her face as she whirled from the wiring to facedown Ed.  “I do not need a lecture from _you_ , of all people Edward!  I made the decision to help people, and that includes Sora!  As far as I’m concerned, the only stupid thing I see here is you!”  She huffed, breathing heavily, nostrils flaring as she turned back to the wiring, pulling wires out of both the communication system and the mechanical arm lying next to the dash.

Wait a second…  Sora looked from the arm to Ed, trying to figure out what was off about the scenario.  Then, like a Thunder spell, it hit Sora.

“You’re missing your arm!”  That meant that the arm that Winry was pulling wires from was probably Ed’s missing arm.

“How long did it take you to figure that one out, genius?”  Ed snapped, and Sora wisely refrained from responding.  Which was all for the better, as it was only a few moments later that Winry was pulling herself up from the wiring, a pleased look on her face.

“That should do it!” She motioned for Sora to come closer.  “We just need to turn it on and make sure everything’s connected how it’s supposed to, and we’re good to go!”  Winry stepped aside, and let Sora take control.  With a few sure movements, Sora was entering the commands to activate the system, and radio frequency and coordinates.  It was only when the screen in front of the system flickered, turning on with a brief blinding white light, that Sora allowed himself to grin.

He was going to get to go home.


End file.
